Bold Recovery

My husband Bob would like everyone to know that he was very sensitive and thoughtful in his celebration of my recent birthday. This is to counter the few lines of iffy publicity he received here after his BOLD choice of a 25th anniversary present was not well received. (This happens sometimes with bold choices.)

Anyway, he has celebrated my 60th over several days, culminating last night, after I thought the celebration over, with the one-woman little inflatable kayak I'd been longing for. I am thrilled! I'm keeping the big photo on the box in front of me until it's warm enough to launch comfortably. Yay, Bob! Here I come, Jordan Lake!

Bob demonstrated great gift-boldness-gone-awry behavior. Terrific recovery!




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A Demonstration of Cheekiness (Boldness)

Do go visit the lovely and wildly flattering piece written about me and Sister India on Mojo's blog.

Here's why (other than because it's so nice about me): There's a five minute clip from a Bollywood movie that shows Varanasi, the holy city where my novel Sister India is set. It's a beautiful trip along the Ganges and the riverbank temples and old maharajah's palaces-- with just the right Hindi music. I'll likely visit the site there regularly, when I need to read an encouraging word and when I want to be taken back to India.

Posting this link was bold, don't you think?




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Achieving Sixty!!

At last: the actual day. As of 2:34 p.m. today, I have lived for sixty action-packed years. And more to go.

When my husband Bob turned sixty, my mother said: "You tell him I've had 20 good years since that age SO FAR." Now she's up to 26.

I'm thinking the same way. My big commemoration will be in October, when (for business purposes) I'm spending a month in New York. Getting a sublet. Being briefly "a New York writer."

I'm also celebrating today and all week. Note Self-portrait with Birthday Card.

I've never liked the term crone. Wise woman isn't much better. Crones and wise women don't read gossip blogs, moisturize, or wear cool shoes.

However, I do see the potential for sixty being pretty cheeky.






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High Flying

Yesterday's post was about the gumption of a lawyer-turned-jewelry-designer.

Here are a couple of William Spear enamels from my own permanent collection. Looking at them, I saw a distinct theme emerging: SOARING. Especially when I consider that my next acquisition will be the High Diver pin (blurrily photographed from the catalog.)

Soaring seems the right thing -- since tomorrow I turn sixty.

If it seems the right thing for you too, you might get/make yourself some kind of visual reminder.










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"The World's Most Wonderful Enamels" from the "King O' Pins"

Bill Spear got his law degree in Nebraska and moved to Alaska to become an assistant Attorney General.

But then he threw it all over to follow a passion sparked in him when he was four years old and saw some bright enamel pins from a military school.

He'd always liked to draw isolated objects. So, first as a hobby, then as a business: he started making drawings of objects and turning them into bright charming intricate enamel pins.

He has created over 2,000 designs. They include images you might never expect to see as a piece of jewelry: a DNA helix, a bellhop carrying suitcases, a diver in mid-air, a geisha, a crawling baby, bagpipes, or one of many different species of fish and birds and other sea creatures.

Husband Bob and I went to his shop in Juneau when we were there a few years ago. First we noticed that people all over this surprisingly small town were wearing collections of pins, all at once. Both men and women.

We tracked the pins down to their showcases at William Spear Design, and were delighted with these wee bits of wearable art, mostly hand-made. Each one is so particular that it seems like a fragment of a story. I have one of a Prairie-style house, and a dinosaur, and a book with wings, and a tube of artist's paint. I have my eye on the high diver in the red bathing suit.

They're irresistible. (And they range from about $5 to $20 each.) I'm so glad Bill Spear didn't resist the urge to create them. And thanks to the article in Coastal Living magazine for info on his history.







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Encouragement to Speak Up

"...When I meet visionary teachers who feel isolated on their own campus and ask them what they have done to make their vision known, the answer is often nothing -- which is why they are isolated. The lost will never be found until they send up a flare." from The Courage to Teach by Parker J. Palmer

My added thought: The visionary will only be a daydreamer if she doesn't make her vision accessible to others.





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Another Good Courage Quote

From Mamie, the source of many good quotes (and photos):

Courage does not always roar. Sometimes it is a quiet voice at the end of the day, saying...I will try again tomorrow.
- Unknown




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Hacked! And Inspired!

Someone sent 2,096 of my friends and colleagues an email Friday trying to sell electronics devices. If the message made it past your spam filter, sorry for the intrusion.

I discovered this state of affairs tonight--didn't pay much attention to my email over the weekend.

But I stayed unusually cool...all on account of an inspiring manuscript I'm reading. A young writer to whom I provided only the slightest bit of help sent me her completed novel asking if I'd consider writing a blurb for her brand-new agent to send out with the manuscript.

First, it was exciting to see what she'd done. Then I spent most of the day reading it: and the book so inspired me. The story put me in the mood to relish the minor difficulties of life as part of the big game.

I'm not always inclined to take that attitude. The last time I played a driveway game of pickup basketball, some decades ago, I got irritated because people kept waving their hands in my face.

Today's delightful reading reminded me that the waving hands and other obstructions are part of what makes the game.




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The Boldness Pledge

This is an invitation. At this auspicious time of year, what would you like to promise yourself to boldly and resolutely do? I invite you to make that decision public here in the comments some time before the end of Friday. And I will do the same.

The more specific the goal, the better. Example: to get the whole house organized vs. to spend a minimum of two hours a week cleaning out closets and shelves, until they're in the desired condition. See how a specific might get more done?

What's important about going public? The person who does this is more likely to accomplish the goal. Also, she or he gains allies and resources that way. Things fall into place better when all the world and planets can see how they might help out.

I hope you'll post here your own bold pledge to yourself.




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Have Fun!

Merry Christmas! Happy Hannukah! Happy New Year!



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The War of Art

I just started listening in my car to an audio version of the book The War of Art (a clever spin on Sun Tzu's classic Art of War) So far I've only heard the first disc, and I've listened to it twice!! though I just got it yesterday!!

Such good stuff. This is the second great resource I've come upon in recent weeks, the other being The Courage to Teach.

The War of Art is (so far)about resistance-- resisting sitting down to write, or standing up to paint, and more. The author Steven Pressfield views all reluctance to do the best right thing as resistance, a force like gravity that we simply need to acknowledge and persevere in spite of. The way I'm saying it sounds dreadfully pious and unappealing. But hearing it on this audio really has me excited.

The metaphor of one large thing that mindlessly sits on my efforts to get off of the sofa works startlingly well for me. I always knew something was there, Jello-like, trying to stop me. I didn't connect it with the same force that says: I'll check my email instead of working on my novel.

Pressfield says the resistance tends to strike when we approach getting down to work on art, a spiritual practice, any health improvement, or strengthening abdominal muscles.

He says --and, oh, I agree -- that the big R can take a wickedly beguiling variety of forms including lawyerly logic. And whatever form it is: "resistance always lies...is always full of shit."

(Thanks to Thomas Griggs for letting me know about this book/CD.)

BTW, Pressfield writes bestsellers, frequently about warfare (also The Legend of Bagger Vance) I'd say, in his case, resistance doesn't stand a chance.


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One Maybe-Stupid Way to Write with Ease

Though I've had a lot to say here about holiday prep, the fact is I've done what prep I've done in about 12 minutes and otherwise have been working like a coal miner on client projects, mainly one very large one.

Saturday I took the first full day off from any writing/editing for quite a while. Sunday I had a little trouble getting cranked up again. And I realized that I'd forgotten what the initial crank-up felt like: a bit of resistance, easily overcome, but still I felt it....Once again a demonstration that touching "the work" every day, if only for a few minutes, can solve one kind of problem (though, I admit, it may cause others. For one thing,it's the 22nd of December, and I don't seem to have gotten all my Christmas cards out.)



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Hit the Ball, You-All

Mamie, who contributed yesterday's Goethe quote, has found us another bit of get-up-and-go inspiration:

"Be bold. If you're going to make an error, make a doozey, and don't be afraid to hit the ball."
Billie Jean King

As matter of fact, Goethe said something similar: "A clever man commits no minor blunders." (from Brainyquote.com)

It's the "sin boldly" principle, an idea that has always stuck in my head. It has a refreshing clarity.

And "hit the ball?" Well, that brings back my days as head junior varsity cheerleader at Wilmington, NC's New Hanover High School, the home of the Wildcats. One of our ever-useful cheers was: "Hit the ball, you-all! Hit the ball!" Clap. Clap. Clap. Which is pretty much what Billie Jean King, Goethe, Mamie, and I are saying.




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Nervous Goethe?

Mamie, a most-welcome regular bold participant here, has sent us a quote: "Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it."
- Goethe

I've read this before, but as I told her, am always glad to be reminded. I also had the thought: Wonder if Goethe was actually a nervous procrastinator.

It's universally known that we all teach (or rattle on about) what we personally need to learn.

I'll bet Goethe was trying to convince himself. I'm going to check around and find out. Thoughts of any Goethe-ists on this would be most welcome.




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Be the Gift

I once heard a woman say in the flurry of "doing" Christmas that she'd decided one afternoon to "be the gift." Often a phrase like this means giving a gift of time: changing someone's lightbulbs or hanging out with them or some such.

But this woman was thinking of it differently. And she was on her way to the mall at the time. So she proceeded to be especially nice to every clerk or cashier she met, every shopper she bumped against. The whole experience was lighter, easier; and she had a wonderful time. Don't you love that? I thought it quite bold.

Another way of thinking about this approach, which I ran across in a sermon: "A Quaker friend of mine used to say to me, 'I will hold you in the light.'”

Of course the whole busy business also applies to Hannukah celebrations and others at this time of year. I've also seen the experience referred to as "doing December." Whatever the occasion, "being the gift" can work.

I watch people like my office partner who celebrates both Christmas and Hannukah (interfaith marriage) and once did a symbolic candle-lighting ceremony on the fold-down tray table on a flight to France (where they were to spend a year) with her family including brand-new baby. Now that's multi-tasking. Or multi-enjoying. She's one who is good at being the gift.



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The Twelve -- or Maybe Two -- Stages of Christmas

Got past the day of holiday agitation. Now it just feels like I'm happily and confidently in the process of landing a small plane, for maybe the second or third time, never mind that this is my 59th Christmas.

I take things too damn seriously. And I doubt if that's going to change a lot. Or if it does it won't be through my straining to make it so. So for the moment I guess I'll just taxi in as is, and then fly off again somewhere else, no doubt to the quiet complexity and soothing pleasures of January.

Bold doesn't have to be simple and slapdash. I'm sure of that.



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More on Teaching Courage

A few days back, I was excited at finding out about a book called The Courage to Teach, by Parker Palmer. Reason: though my classes seem to go well, I always feel a fear of teaching return afterwards. That's so weirdly specific: like being scared of heights only three or seven stories high. And I don't understand the fear's ability to grow back every time I get rid of it.

But anyway, I got hold of the book, started reading and it's everything I'd hope it would be. What it did for me, essentially, is to encourage my teaching in my own way and not worrying about what's supposed to work best. You'd think that would be perfectly obvious, especially for an artist-type. And, in fact, I've pretty much always done it my way, but then worried that people weren't getting what they needed. Apparntly I needed encouragement to keep on doing what I've been doing and simply relax about it.

Here are two quotes I especially like: "External tools of power have occasional utility in teaching, but they are no substitute for authority, the authority that comes from the teacher's inner life....Authority is granted to people who are perceived as authoring their own words, their own actions, their own lives, rather than playing a scripted role at great remove from their own hearts."

And: "Behind their fearful silence, our students want to find their voices, speak their voices, have their voices heard. A good teacher is one who can listen to those voices even before they are spoken--so that someday they can speak with truth and confidence."



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Write Fast

I'M A BIG BELIEVER IN WORKING QUICKLY, BECAUSE I THINK IT'S HARDER-THOUGH NOT IMPOSSIBLE-TO BE PRETENTIOUS WHEN YOU'RE MOVING REALLY FAST.
—Moviemaker Steven Soderbergh

From Interview magazine website

I once got bogged down in the middle of my first novel Revelation. I decided that on the following day, if I could get 7 pages of any quality cranked out, I would then take the rest of the day off for nothing but leisure. No more work, no errands. I figured I might get it done in 7 hours.

The following day I wrote 7 pages in an hour and 45 minutes and they were better than anything I'd written in weeks. The book really came to life again.





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What Roy Blount Wants for Christmas

Roy Blount, Jr., that jolly old elf, is current King Pen of the Authors Guild, and just sent this out to the membership. I think it's a great idea.


"We don't want bookstores to die. Authors need them, and so do neighborhoods. So let's mount a book-buying splurge. Get your friends together, go to your local bookstore and have a book-buying party. Buy the rest of your Christmas presents, but that's just for starters.

Clear out the mysteries,
wrap up the histories,
beam up the science fiction!

Round up the westerns,
go crazy for self-help,
say yes to the university press books!

Get a load of those coffee-table books,
fatten up on slim volumes of verse,
and take a chance on romance!

There will be birthdays in the next twelve months; books keep well; they're easy to wrap: buy those books now. Buy replacements for any books looking raggedy on your shelves. Stockpile children's books as gifts for friends who look like they may eventually give birth. Hold off on the flat-screen TV and the GPS (they'll be cheaper after Christmas) and buy many, many books. Then tell the grateful booksellers, who by this time will be hanging onto your legs begging you to stay and live with their cat in the stockroom: 'Got to move on, folks. Got some books to write now.'"

(Okay, you're not an old elf, Roy, but jolly good funny.)

If you happen to be a Durhamite, you might choose to party at The Regulator, or in Raleigh at Quail Ridge Books & Music.

(Note: the line breaks and boldfacing are all mine.)





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Santa Claus Hat, Artcar, Goat Meat

In the oatmeal-and-Internet cafe where I am taking my breakfast this morning, a man sits one table ahead of me in a rather elegant serious-looking Santa Claus hat.

He's about thirty, lean, dark and grizzled. The pile of napkins and tea detritus in front of him indicate he has been here for a while, by himself. He is otherwise dressed in a hiply outdoorsy way: layered T-shirts and a down vest.

What worries me is that it took me about ten minutes to notice that the guy has on a Claus cap. I wonder if I'm in a fog and not noticing much and how much of the time this is the case.

And I wonder why he decided to throw on red velvet and faux ermine this morning.
*Is it just the sort of thing he naturally does: it's who he is.
*Is he a late-blooming sociology grad student monitoring reactions (don't think so, he blinks a little too much)
*Did he do it as one of his personal experiments with overthrowing convention
*Or because he is full of the Christmas spirit
*Or because he feels rakish and daring with that fur band around his ears, showercap style
*Did he do it to meet people (an older man in a knit cap, chatty and opinionated, has just sat down at the next table and engaged him in conversation. They shake hands. They both look happy and relieved.
*Is it a signal I haven't heard about?

I suppose someone might have asked the same questions about why I painted morning glories on my car. Answer: I'd always had an irrational craving that way and didn't examine it too closely. And, it didn't feel eccentric, it felt normal, with a twist of delight.

The two guys across from me are both visual artists, I now hear. The older one, black, garrulous, is articulate. The younger white stubble-faced one listens and says, "Holy crap, man!"

What I'm searching for, I think, is what distinguishes an odd gesture that's a natural extension of oneself in a particular moment, from a what-was-I-thinking move.

Did I mention that my beloved husband surprised me with 80 pounds of goat meat for our 25th anniversary on Monday? (I don't cook, don't eat much meat, tried goat once in 1978 and found it so-so.)






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